DB9 Upgraded Brakes. The Aston Martin DB9 brakes are, I believe, marginal. Exactly the same brakes are used on the V8 Vantage with much less power and weight. My DB9 brakes did not feel at all reassuring, braking from high speeds.
The standard setup consists of 355 * 32mm one piece front discs with Brembo 4 piston calipers and the rear has one piece 330 * 28mm discs with smaller 4 Piston Brembo calipers, the rears have a small separate handbrake caliper.
DB9 Upgraded Front Brakes
To upgrade the front brakes, I used 410 * 35mm discs with an alloy bell and the calipers from an Aston Martin DBS, these are 6 piston monobloc calipers and are attached by using the same bracket as the DBS/Virage/Vantage V12 uses (the DBS/Virage have Carbon ceramic brakes of 398mm front and 360mm rear diameter.
Two piece discs have a number of advantages over single piece discs, reduced weight, better heat dissipation, less risk of warping and better airflow. The larger area and greater diameter also increase stopping power with less risk of fading.
These brackets are easily available or could be made quite simply, the same brake hose can be used. The bracket just bolts on where the the caliper bolted on and the caliper bolts onto the bracket.
The calipers and pads are substantially larger than the original DB9 calipers
DB9 Upgraded Rear Brakes
The rear discs are more complicated, I upgraded to 380 * 28mm two piece discs.
I modified the DBS bracket (a 15mm spacer) by adding 10mm and welding it to the existing spacer, the main caliper is fitted radially to the hub.
And then made a spacer for the handbrake caliper, which is fitted laterally, this was made of 2 pieces of steel shaped to fit and then welded back to back, I will be making milled billet aluminium alloy brackets to replace these in the near future.
Improvements
The upgraded brakes have resulted in far more bite, better feel and a huge improvement in stopping power. My Aston has 20″ DBS wheels and I don’t think these brakes would fit behind the standard 19″ wheels on a DB9 . The total weight of the brakes has gone up by just a few hundred grammes due to the alloy bells and as the rotors can be changed without changing the bells it makes it cheaper to change the discs.
I also think that the brakes look far better than the standard items.
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